Pentagon Might Register Women

Reporter not listed

Cavalier Daily

Cavalier Daily

1983-09-01

Pentagon Might Register Women
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon reportedly is drafting legislation that for the first time would make some women eligible for a draft by authorizing the president to order registration of doctors and nurses under age 46.
A Defense Department official, quoted in a Media General News report appearing yesterday, said the measure is needed because U.S. armed services would be short 8,000 doctors and 23,000 nurses if a conventional war broke out.
"Ninety-seven to 98 percent of the nurse population is female," said Lt. Col. Tom Schumann, deputy director of health manpower for the Defense Department. “The only way I can see getting that many nurses is to draft females.”
Eighteen-year-old males must now register with the Selective Service. Congress would have to pass a law reauthorizing the draft before anyone could be forced to join the armed services
Tom Nickels, a lobbyist for the American Nurses Association, called the proposal "another example of the Reagan administration's insensitivity to women’s issues.”
“Here you have the Reagan administration, which staunchly opposes the Equal Rights Amendment partly because they say it would require women to register for the draft, at the same time out to draft women nurses,” Nickels said. "With its shoddy record on women's issues, it is outrageous that the administration wants to sign them up for the draft.”
Schumann conceded the proposal to draft medical personnel – particularly women – is controversial, but said he knows no other way to assure there are enough health professionals in the armed services.